1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sound volume adjustment system in a personal computer and, more particularly, to a sound volume adjustment system enabling voice data to be reproduced in a level sound volume appropriate for each application and a sound volume adjustment method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
First, one example of sound volume adjustment in a conventional personal computer will be described with reference to FIG. 3.
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram for use in explaining an arrangement of sound volume adjustment in a conventional personal computer. In multi-task environments, for example, voice data is transferred from a plurality of applications 320 and 321 to an operating system (e.g. Windows 98 (Registered Trademark)) as illustrated in FIG. 3. Then, an operating system 300 reproduces the voice data by the sound function. A sound volume of the reproduced sound is adjusted by a volume adjustment function 310.
The sound function of a personal computer has not only a function of reproducing voice data from an application but also a function of generating a warning sound for use in notifying the occurrence of error etc. by an operating system.
In a conventional personal computer, however, a sound volume of a reproduced sound of voice data and a sound volume of a warning sound are adjusted in the lump by the common volume adjustment function (e.g. analog volume) 310. Change of the volume of the reproduced sound of voice data will therefore result in change of the sound volume of the warning sound as well.
As a result, in a conventional personal computer, when an error occurs while voice data from an application is reproduced with its sound volume increased, a large volume of warning sound will be generated. To the contrary, when an error occurs while voice data is reproduced with its volume decreased, a user might not notice the warning sound.
Under these circumstances, a technique of individually adjusting a sound volume of a warning sound (buzzer sound) and a volume of a reproduced sound of voice data is proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Kokai No. (Heisei) 10-31578 (Literature 1). According to the art disclosed in Literature 1, separately provided in addition to an analog volume are a sound volume adjustment unit for adjusting a volume of a reproduced sound of voice data and a buzzer sound volume adjustment unit for adjusting a volume of a warning sound.
The above-described technique disclosed in Literature 1 has an advantage in realizing individual adjustment of a volume of a reproduced sound of voice data and a volume of a warning sound.
The conventional art, however, needs adjustment of the sound volume adjustment unit and the buzzer sound volume adjustment unit in addition to an analog volume, so that operation for sound volume adjustment might be complicated, which leaves a room for technical improvement.
In a multi-task environment, for example, voice data is transferred from a plurality of applications to an operating system as described above. These voice data are ordinarily transferred as pulse coded modulation (PCM) data. For such PCM data, a volume of its reproduced sound is roughly classified into two.
That is, the first reproduced sound volume is a sound volume adjusted for a player as a domestic appliance. Among examples of volumes to be thus adjusted are a sound volume of reproduced voice data of a CD (Compact Disk) and a sound volume of reproduced voice data of a DVD (Digital Video Disk).
Second reproduced sound volume is that of voice data assumed to be handled as an application of a personal computer. Sound volume in this case is adjusted to have the same level as that of a volume of a warning sound of the personal computer.
Thus, even in a case where volumes of reproduced sounds of voice data from applications are adjusted in the lump independently of a volume of a warning sound, the volumes of the reproduced sounds might vary with applications, so that there might arise a need of adjusting a sound volume for each application.